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Parenting is Changing!

I am a Baby Boomer, raised by the Traditional/Silent Generation. I can remember after losing my parents and being raised in an abusive home life, I became a bully. “Children learn what they live.” I was a bully at school, because I was being bullied at home. As my empathetic GOD seeds begin to grow, I became an advocate/defender; had the tendency to speak/stand up for others that struggled to do so for themselves.

I can remember being told too many times, “Worry about yourself.” I understand what the authority figures were trying to teach, the one that was not speaking or standing up for themselves, “you need to learn to speak or stand up for yourself.” Yet, what their response did was taught me, “you shouldn’t speak/stand up for others.”

Now as an adult, who understand the need to examine and evaluate the things I was taught and trained to do, I can see how these situations should have been handled with an interactive approach. Instead of stomping on the growth of my empathetic seeds, a better response would have been, “Thank you for letting me know. It appears that you have a good relationship with this person; so how do you think we can work together to get them to speak/stand for themselves?” This response would have presented inclusion, engagement and collaboration to my empathetic seeds.

I feel the “worry about yourself” response is an easy, comfortable and legitimate response to ignore the problem. I can only imagine the power of my growth had I been included in the opportunity to embrace the challenge. I can only imagine the power of the growth of the person that I was speaking/standing up for had they been encouraged to engage in the challenge. I can only imagine the power of the authority figure to collaborate and watch us both grow in the challenge.

I was immensely impressed yesterday (March 24, 2018) as I watched the youth (the Gen Z/iGen/Centennials generation) nation-wide engaged in the March for Life. These youths are being raised by Generation X and/or Generation Y/Millennials and I can tell they have changed the parenting game around! I can tell these Generation X and Y parents are not saying, “Worry about yourself!”

I can tell these parents have learned that this mentality kills collaboration. They are saying, “How can I help you, help them?” While you may see a girl like Marley Dias, an African-American 11-year-old who launched a campaign to collect books that focused on black girls, when she noticed all her mandatory reading was about white boys and dogs.

I see involved parents focused on encouragement and engagement.

I can tell these parents have learned to foster inclusion and are not saying, “Do as I say; not as I do!” I can tell that these parents have learned that this mentality kills innovation. I can tell they are saying, “What do you want to do about it?!”

While you might see a girl like Naomi Wadler, an African-American 11-year-old who was concerned about Courtlin Arrington, a black girl killed in school shooting, but ignored in the media.

I see involved parents focused on encouragement and engagement.

Ultimately, I saw the other youth, after watching her modify the march at her elementary school from 17 to 18 minutes to include the life of Courtlin Arrington, embrace inclusion and collaboration by asking her to speak at the March in Washington, DC.

While you may see Amazing Children doing Amazing things.

I see Amazing ParentsChangers with modified mentality that is encouraging their children to